Greetings all! As my 2nd book, Lifelong Companion: My Journey Through 100 Dylan Songs, remains on hold as I await permission to quote from Bob Dylan’s songs, I would like to remind everyone that my well-received first book, Music Titans: 250 Greatest Recording Artists of the Past 100 Years, makes for a great Christmas or seasonal gift and remains readily available in paperback and eBook formats at Amazon, B&N, BookBaby, Apple, and many other sites. Music Titans contains encyclopedic entries on artists of all genres- from rockers like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Bruce Springsteen to country artists like Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, and Willie Nelson; from such vintage greats as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, and George Gershwin to my parents’ favorites, Benny Goodman, Glenn Millker, and Tony Bennett; from experimental giants like Bjork, Kraftwerk, and Daft Punk to rap luminaries like Tupac Shakur, JAY-Z, and Eminem; from such transcendent greats as the Beatles, Elvis, and Michael Jackson to contemporary titans like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Rihanna. The artists are ranked from #250 to #1, using a clearly explained metric that considers such factors as record sales, and musical and cultural influence. Thanks for reading.
Tag: blues
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I continue to be gratified that my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, continues to attract new readers. Below, you’ll find the opening passage of the book, which sets out how I came to write it —
There are not a lot of universals in this fractured world. Certainly we are divided by politics, religion, class, and, all too often still, by race. One universal bonding element, however, is music. Music is found in all cultures, and even the most hardened or stoic individual can be moved by a song, a melody, a chord, a lyric, a beat.
Not that we all love the same songs or the same styles of music. As a child, all too often, I heard my father hollering to “turn that noise down,” while I often looked to flee the room to avoid having to hear his melancholy tunes. Still, I think it is safe to say that virtually all human beings can be stirred, at times, by some form of music.
This book is an attempt to honor that universal grace that we call music. I am not a professor of music and I don’t purport to know much about Indian or Chinese or Middle Eastern music. I may speak a little Spanish, but I am not qualified to write about Mexican ranchera or mariachi styles. What I have been doing, ever since I was a little boy in the mid-’50s, is listening to music—religiously, fanatically, constantly. In countless ways, music has colored, even defined and given meaning to my life. I bought my first 45s at age seven, made weekly lists of my favorite songs when I was 11 or 12, sang in choirs and choruses and informal doo-wop gatherings with friends as I grew into adolescence. As I said, I didn’t listen to mariachi or Indian music because it wasn’t readily available, but I consumed everything within my grasp. When I bought my first $8 guitar from Woolworth’s, I learned to play (badly) and in no time I was singing and strumming in a teenage band, then later in parks, on beaches, and street corners, caring not for the coins or occasional bills that came my way but only for the love of singing and sharing song. Never parlaying the occasional coffee house, recording session, or church gig into a career, I grew instead into a teacher but never left the world of music behind.
This book, then, is a labor of love. Whenever I watch or read about the latest Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, or check out Rolling Stone’slists of the greatest this or that, or listen to a trendy artist picking up a handful of Grammys, I am always intrigued and sometimes ready to differ. That’s what this book is about—it seeks to answer the question, just who are the greatest recording artists of the past century?
MUSIC TITANS remains available at Amazon or wherever books are sold online. Thank you!
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Greetings and blessings, all. This week my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, celebrates its one-year anniversary of publication. I want to thank everyone who bought and/or read it. It continues to sell, mostly on Amazon, in dribs and drabs. Here are a few of the publicly posted comments the book has received—
“I Love this Book!
Steve Williams’ new book is a crime of musical passion. Let’s face it, music is like sushi bars – everyone has their favorite, and we’re passionate about protecting and defending our choices.
Not so much a list, this book is an homage to music, Williams’s love for most of his life… “—Jeffrey Weber, (Grammy award winning producer and author)“Music Titans is an absolute masterpiece!… From Sinatra’s melodious tunes to Taylor Swift’s cultural influence, from the timeless classics of Tin Pan Alley to Tupac Shakur’s poetic prowess, Williams seamlessly blends empathy and intellectual insight in his penetrating analysis…”— Peter S. Burke, music publisher
“…full of enough factual information that the mind boggles…”— Record Producer Bill Bentley
“Music Titans is a must-read for any music enthusiast and I would certainly recommend it.” (5 Stars) – K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
“I was really impressed by the amount of work that has gone into this…If you love music and music history, you will enjoy this look at some of the best. I suggest reading it while listening to the music of some of the great artists portrayed here.”— BonnieD of Bonnie Reads and Writes
MUSIC TITANS remains available at multiple online sites. Thanks, again, for your continued support in spreading the word. — Steve
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Having spent the past four days in Seattle got me thinking of one of the city’s musical icons, the late JIMI HENDRIX, who hails from here. The following is taken from my music history book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS—‚
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame called him “the most gifted instrumentalist of all time.” Like a meteor blazing through the musical firmament, Jimi Hendrix was gone before we really got to know him. His childhood, spent mostly in Seattle, was chaotic, unstable, insecure, and lonely. With a fractious home life, the young boy took refuge in music, carrying a broom as his pretend guitar. At 14, he found a one-string ukulele in the garbage; he practiced it diligently, graduating to a $5 guitar the next year and his first electric at 16. A yearlong stint in the army earned him a general discharge, but he soon found his musical direction.
Drawing inspiration from Elvis and the blues masters, Hendrix began playing guitar on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” of Black venues throughout the American south, as well as in the mid-east, and east coast. In time, he was backing the Isley Brothers and Little Richard, but a 1966 trip to London with ex-Animals’ bassist Chas Chandler turned him into an overnight sensation in England, playing for and blowing away the likes of the Beatles, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton. Nine months later, the Monterey Pop Festival brought him widespread attention in the U.S. Teaming with English bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed. In their brief time together, they released three studio albums, 1967’s Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love, and 1968’s Electric Ladyland. All three were best sellers, and each is considered a classic, with such iconic songs as “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” Foxy Lady,” “Little Wing,” and the stunning reimagining of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”.
Jimi once noted, “Technically, I’m not a guitar player. All I play is truth and emotion.” John Frusciante said, “I don’t think there’s a better guitar player in history,” and countless publications, musicologists, and guitarists agree…Jimi, variously described as shy, humble, sweet, kind, and naive, seemed to be a soul in pain, and he died, tragically, at the age of 27, due to complications of alcohol and barbiturate abuse. His death was declared an open verdict by the coroner, and speculation persists as to its exact cause. Mick Jagger, though, put him into perspective as “the most exciting… performer I have ever seen.”
Suggested Songs:
Hey Joe (1966)
Purple Haze (1967)
All Along the Watchtower (1968)
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (1968)
You can read Jimi’s full profile, and that of 249 additional artists taken from all genres, in Steve’s book, MUSIC TITANS, which remains on sale at Amazon, BookBaby, and numerous other online sites.
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It has been one year since my music history book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, released in eBook format (the paperback came out in March 2024). I am not a best-selling author (not close), and it would be a huge stretch, even, to call my book a hit. Still, MUSIC TITANS has remained fairly consistently among Amazon’s Top 5% selling titles (there are millions of books out there). It is well regarded (4.4 on Amazon and 4.73 on Goodreads), and has even been picked up by several library systems.
For those who don’t know, I looked at 100 years of recorded music (1923 to 2023), artists from all genres, and three broad metrics (Popularity- total records sold; live music or concert attraction; longevity as a consequential artist. The second metric was Influence- musical and cultural, both in their own time and long-term. The third metric was major Awards and Honors won). Using a point system, I then came up with my ranked list of the 250 “greatest”- Not necessarily my favorites. I let the three criteria and the total number of points define who is on the list. Of course, people can and do and should disagree with who is on and who is not on the list. I don’t pretend that this is a definitive or scientific ranking. I often have second guessed myself, feeling like I undervalued or over valued certain artists. I did, though, do a lot of reading and research, as well as listening, and I assure you that all the true, no doubt about it, giants are here- Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Miles, Hank, Elvis, Streisand, the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Willie, Dolly, Aretha, Michael, Marley, Madonna, Eminem, and so-on. MUSIC TITANS is meant to be educational, but it is also meant to be fun, to provoke discussion and debate, but also to promote listening.
I hope you read it (if you haven’t already), tell your friends about it, and let me know your thoughts. It is still widely available at Amazon, BookBaby, Barnes & Noble, etc. Thanks!
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With the current success of the BOB DYLAN biopic, A Complete Unknown, it seems an auspicious time to feature an excerpt from my Dylan profile taken from my book MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS-
In January 1961, a scruffy Minnesota college dropout made his way to the wintery streets of Greenwich Village, New York. Sleeping on borrowed couches and rifling through his hosts’ album and book collections, the 19-year-old Robert Zimmerman, who had begun calling himself Bob Dylan, began to hit the local coffee bars and clubs, Cafe Wha? and Gerde’s Folk City on Hootenanny and open-mic nights, singing mostly Woody Guthrie and traditional folk tunes. Joan Baez later put it into song, “You burst on the scene already a legend… ” Not quite, but, by year’s end, Dylan was headlining at Gerde’s, had received a glowing review in The New York Times, and was signed by legendary talent scout John Hammond to Columbia Records.
Dylan’s 1962 recording debut was inauspicious enough, a collection of mostly folk covers that failed to sell, but, by 1963, he was being hailed as the king of modern folk and a songwriting genius. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, with its iconic cover photo of Bob and girlfriend Suze arm in arm in the Village, features at least five genuine classics: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” perhaps Dylan’s most famous composition, covered hundreds of times, most famously by Peter, Paul, and Mary, who sang it at the 1963 March on Washington; “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” repeatedly linked to the Cuban Missile Crisis, though it was written before; “Masters of War,” with its timeless, no-holds-barred attack on the nameless politicians and industrialists who profit from war; “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” a bittersweet breakup lament; and the timeless love ballad, “Girl from the North Country.”
It was, however, in 1965-1966, in the space of 15 months, when Dylan recorded and released his unrivaled trio of classic rock and blues albums, with their surreal, poetic pyrotechnics, that he became a genuine recording superstar, the epitome of the hip New York artist and cultural/generational leader, admired and emulated even by the Beatles. “Like a Rolling Stone,” which “sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind,” said Bruce Springsteen; “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” in many ways a prototype rap; “Mister Tambourine Man,” with its poetic exploration of drug-induced or musically stimulated consciousness; “Desolation Row,” Dylan’s urban emulation of Eliot’s The Waste Land; the joyful longing of ” I Want You;” “Just Like a Woman,” with its painful sense of lost love—these, and so many other celebrated songs, come from this fertile period…
…It is probably safe to say that no other recording artist has been so honored this past century. In a few short decades, Dylan has gone from being hounded by Newsweek to being taught in universities from Stanford to Harvard and having his lyrics quoted by Supreme Court Justices. Dylan has had two Broadway plays utilizing his music; he has won Grammys, an Oscar, a Pulitzer, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, equivalent French and Spanish honors, even the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. Academics now speak his name in the same breath with Shakespeare and Virgil, but Dylan himself would be the first to say not to take anybody else’s word for it—go and listen for yourself.
Suggested Songs:
Blowin’ in the Wind (1963)
Like a Rolling Stone (1965)
Desolation Row (1965)
Tangled Up in Blue (1975)
Mississippi (2001)
MUSIC TITANS continues to be available online (Amazon, BookBaby, B&N, Walmart, and more) in paperback and eBook formats at reduced prices.
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With the holiday season here, I hope you will consider gifting my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, to the music lovers in your life. MUSIC TITANS ranks and profiles the most consequential recording artists of the past century (from 1923 to 2023), using a clearly explained algorithm based on popularity (records sold, concert attraction, longevity), musical and cultural influence, and major awards won. You will find artists of all genres included – from Rock to Country, Jazz to Pop, R&B to Hip-Hop, Blues to Folk, Classical to Electronica, and more.
MUSIC TITANS has been lauded by music industry insiders – music publisher Peter Burke called it “an absolute masterpiece!”; Grammy winning producer Jeffrey Weber wrote, “I love this Book!”; while producer Bill Bentley said, “Steve Williams…comes through with flying colors.” Reviewers have used words like “comprehensive,” “accessible,” “insightful,” “immersive,” “entertaining,” “perceptive,” and “fun” in describing it.
MUSIC TITANS is available (and at discount prices) at Amazon, BookBaby Bookshop (my publisher), and at several other online sites. Thank you! – Steve
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I want to thank all who have bought and/or read my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS. The book has continued to sell steadily, if not spectacularly. I hope you consider it as a potential gift during this holy season.
MUSIC TITANS is for all those who love music as it profiles and ranks the most consequential recording artists from every major genre going back to the 1920s, the era of Gershwin, Jolson, and Bessie Smith; through the Jazz Age with giants like Armstrong, Ellington, and Holiday; into the Rock & Roll and Rock eras, featuring the likes of Elvis and the Beatles, Zeppelin and Bowie, Coldplay and Foo Fighters; and on into the age of Hip-Hop (yes, Tupac and Biggie, Eminem and Kendrick), Country, (from Hank to Dolly to Shania), and Pop (from Michael to Madonna, Beyonce to Taylor).
MUSIC TITANS is currently on sale at reduced prices in many venues, in both paperback and eBook formats, and can be found online at Amazon, B&N, BookBaby Bookshop (my publisher), and countless other sites. Again, thank you!
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With the holiday season here, my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, would make a great gift for the music lovers in your life. As this is the time when the largest percentage of books are sold during the year, I feel it would be remiss for me Not to promote my title at this time.
Two years in the making, the reader will find many of their favorite artists ranked and profiled with “fun” and “perceptive” biographical detail and commentary for each. If their taste runs to old-time jazz, they’ll find entries on the likes of Armstrong and Ellington, Holiday and Fitzgerald; the more modern masters are there as well, from Parker to Miles to Coltrane. If they love rock, they’ll discover cogent essays on the likes of Chuck Berry and Elvis, the Beatles and the Stones, through to Zeppelin, Bowie, Queen, and the Eagles; Metallica, Springsteen, REM, and U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, and Foo Fighters. Old time country pioneers, like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are here, but so, too, are Johnny and Waylon, Loretta and Dolly, George, Garth, and Shania. From Sinatra to Barbra, Michael to Madonna, Biggie to Beyonce, Kendrick to Taylor, and, no doubt, a few surprises sprinkled in, MUSIC TITANS is “comprehensive” yet “accessible.”
Available online in paperback and eBook formats, MUSIC TITANS can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookBaby Bookshop, and other outlets. Thank you! – Steve
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With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday season just around the corner, I hope you will consider gifting my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, to friends and family (or to yourself, if you haven’t yet read it). MUSIC TITANS ranks and profiles the most consequential recording artists of the past century (1923 to 2023), using a clearly explained algorithm based on popularity, influence, and major awards won. You will find artists of all genres included – from Rock to Country, Jazz to Pop, R&B to Hip-Hop, and more.
MUSIC TITANS has been lauded by music industry insiders – music publisher Peter Burke called it “an absolute masterpiece!”; Grammy winning producer Jeffrey Weber wrote, “I love this Book!”; while producer Bill Bentley said, “Steve Williams…comes through with flying colors.” Reviewers have used words like “comprehensive,” “accessible,” “insightful,” “immersive,” “entertaining,” “perceptive,” and “fun” in describing my book.
MUSIC TITANS is readily available (and at discount prices) at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookBaby Bookshop (my publisher), Walmart, and wherever books are sold online; and if you Have already read my book, a sincere thank you!
